Buying a camera

Making an intelligent purchase

THE FIRST-TIME BUYER

The person with the greatest need for information is the first-time buyer, the absolute novice who has little experience with photography. People who already have a camera probably know what their camera’s shortcomings and advantages are, and what features to look for in their next purchase, but the first-timer is treading on virgin territory and needs a good guide to keep from buying the wrong camera.

THE WRONG CAMERA

A camera that does less or more than you want or need is the wrong camera for you. Putting out more money than is necessary for features you won’t ever use is a mistake, particularly if it runs you into debt, however it is not as serious as acquiring a camera that is inadequate for your needs. In the first instance, your over-equipped camera will still take the pictures you are after, but a camera that is not up to your picture-taking requirements will have to be exchanged for one that does what you want. Hopefully, you won't have purchased a whole raft of expensive accessories that can only be used with a camera that doesn't meet your needs.

PRICE MAKES PERFECTION

In the world of cameras, particularly with the better-known brand names, the rule of thumb that “the more expensive it is, the better it is” is largely true. This doesn’t apply in all cases, but so well-made are the best cameras that you can purchase a top-of-the-line, fully-automatic, professional camera for thousands of dollars and need to do little more than press the shutter release in fully-automatic mode for near-perfectly-exposed pictures, no matter what the shooting conditions. If you are reasonably well-off, you may be able to afford such a wonder camera for your first camera, but even if you are super-wealthy, we recommend against it.

THE RIGHT CAMERA

Our recommendation? Your first camera should be the ideal camera to help you learn about photography, one that produces quality pictures and requires you - not the camera’s built-in computer(s) - to make the decisions, so that as you gain proficiency, you will better appreciate the more-advanced cameras and will know how to not only utilize, but also how and when to over-ride their super features to continue to improve your pictures.

If you were taking flying lessons, you wouldn't start on an airplane that can land and take off automatically, and that can fly by itself. You would begin with an uncomplicated, basic airplane. Why? Because you could not learn as much about flying if the airplane made all the decisions. The same is true of your first camera.

FINDING THE RIGHT CAMERA FOR YOU

You will note we have assumed that you want to be an accomplished photographer, not just a weekend snapshooter. There are several inexpensive point-and-shoot (fully-automatic) cameras available that produce snapshots of remarkably-good quality without your having to know much at all about how the camera works. (Most APS and many digital point-and-shoot cameras fall into this category.) If this is the level at which you want to approach photography, that is fine. Many of our tips and hints will be of great help to you in taking good point-and-shoot pictures. There is no reason why most of them can't be very good.

Most point-and-shoot cameras are quite limited in the flexibility they give the photographer, and a serious student of photography would undoubtedly become frustrated when attempting to learn a new technique if his or her equipment restricted advancement. How often have we heard in Basic Photography classes students saying "I can't do that with my camera"? The answer is too often. You want to begin with a camera that can do "that," but that can't do everything by itself.

WALK BEFORE YOU RUN

In today’s world where immediate satisfaction seems to be the norm, it may be difficult for you to accept that the best tool a photographer has is not her or his camera, but her or his skill, knowledge and experience. Sure, you can buy a camera that will do it all for you, and you can attain a degree of immediate satisfaction because your pictures will be in focus and properly-exposed, but you won’t know why, you won’t feel personal gratification, and your photography won’t improve much. Your satisfaction will last a day or so, and then you will feel the same kind of gnawing discomfort that would come from owning a Ferrari with an automatic transmission because you can’t drive a manual shift.

By now, you have probably guessed that our philosophy for providing advice to first-time camera buyers is based on buying more than one camera. Hold it, though. Don’t jump to conclusions. We aren’t suggesting that you buy more than one camera at a time. We are suggesting that you buy the right entry level camera, learn to use it so well that it becomes almost instinctive to you, and when you eventually outgrow it, trade it in for a more-advanced camera that presents new challenges for you to overcome, and new opportunities for your photography to improve. If you begin with a quality camera and take proper care of it, it should retain much of its value and will prove to be an asset at trade-in time.

A GOOD GUIDELINE

Your camera should be durable. It will undoubtedly get a lot of use. Here is a simple rule of thumb that will almost ensure that you are purchasing a durable first camera:

WE WANT YOU TO KNOW WHY YOUR PICTURES ARE GOOD

The objective of this website is to improve the photography of its viewers. You wouldn’t be here if your pictures were perfect and you knew it all. So, if you are serious about learning photography, don’t jump the gun and run out and buy a super camera that does it all for you; follow instead our guidelines for buying the right camera for you at this point in time. You will be so pleased when you find you can produce pictures of superior quality - and you know how you did it and know you can do it again, over and over with confidence - that you will have no regrets about buying the right camera for your needs of the moment.

Click on Buying your first camera to get off on the right foot.